City Council Votes to Keep Same Salaries

One month after rejecting a plan to more than double the salaries of San Diego's elected officials, the City Council voted 7-1 on Monday to keep their compensation the same.

The annual salary ordinance is part of the budgeting process for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Councilman Carl DeMaio cast the dissenting vote.

The mayor will receive an annual salary of $100,464, council members will get $75,386 and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith's annual compensation will be $193,000.

A city commission that studies compensation data suggested earlier this year that pay be hiked to $235,000 for the mayor and $175,000 for council members, but the idea was unanimously voted down.

Mayor Jerry Sanders, who leaves office in December because of term limits, will draw less than half of the annual pay in fiscal year 2013.

The mayor and council haven't received a pay increase in nine years, and have been subjected to the same 6 percent pay cut imposed on other municipal employees.

Commission Chairman Robert Ottilie said more than 3,500 city employees made more than council members in the 2010 calendar year.

City Human Resources Director Scott Chadwick said the 6 percent salary reduction will remain in place for employees in fiscal 2013.

However, members of the Municipal Employees Association will no longer be able to apply the cut to their Supplemental Pension Savings Plans, according to Chadwick. Under a new agreement, MEA members—mostly white-collar workers—will have to take a 52-hour furlough, he said.

The changes do not apply to other city employee unions, Chadwick said.

-City News Service

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